High Dynamic Range photography is a technique I use often in the processing of my photographs. It is highly controversial right now and examples of HDR processing can be seen all over the internet. Some photographers make fabulous use of this technique while others take their photos to a level beyond surreal.

Why I use it:

Photographers measure the amount of light in “stops”. The human eye can see variations of brightness measuring about twenty stops. The best cameras on the market today can capture five to seven stops of light. (varying degrees of brightness) So in order to gather as much light as needed to fully illuminate a photograph the photographer could take the same picture multiple times and blend them together.

Example:

In the picture below the sky is the brightest object in the photograph. In one of the pictures I took the sky looked rich and vibrant with color, but the topiary and the flowers in front of the gate were pitch black. At the other end of the sequence the flowers and statue had rich color, contrast and depth, but the sky was pure white. Blending the different pictures together produces the image below. Which is much closer to how I saw it, then any one picture could have reproduced.